As the luxury art market faced a prolonged lull, Sotheby’s shook the world awake with a sale that was historic not just within its prestigious halls, but across the entire art communities.
On the night of 18th November, Sotheby’s dropped the hammer on Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer), which sold for a staggering $236.4 million, making it the most expensive piece of modern art ever purchased and the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction — the first being Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. The sale, which exceeded its $150 million estimate, followed 20 minutes of competitive bidding among at least six parties and was ultimately purchased anonymously over the phone.
The event was part of Sotheby’s first evening auctions – in its new Manhattan headquarters, the Breuer building – which brought in a record $605.1 million ($706 million with fees). A significant portion came from the white-glove sale of 24 works from late Leonard Lauder’s collection, with the Klimt portrait alone accounting for over half of that collection’s total. Other notable lots included works by Picasso, Matisse, Calder, and Munch, with many exceeding their high estimates.
Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart highlighted that the results and strong attendance were evidence of a vibrant and resurgent high-end art market, bolstered by optimism among collectors and top collections coming to market.
From Klimt’s Final Years – Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer carries a history as layered as its surface. Looted by the Nazis and nearly lost to wartime destruction, the painting was returned in 1948 to Elisabeth’s brother, Erich – a member of Klimt’s close artistic circle. It remained with Erich until 1983, before entering the private collection of Leonard A. Lauder, cosmetics heir to Estée Lauder, who proudly hung it in his Fifth Avenue home for almost four decades. Often described as the jewel of his collection, it was one of the only two full-length Klimt portraits still in private hands.
Painted between 1914 and 1916, the work captures the young heiress in a Chinese dragon robe, its motifs drawn from Qing Dynasty textiles representative of cosmic authority. The dragons’ circling movements around Elisabeth’s thighs portray her as a tamer of the elements and powerful beasts. By visualising her in such mythical terms, Klimt is reinventing the “Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli.
Unlike the gilded opulence of Klimt’s celebrated Golden Period, this portrait reflects a deliberate shift in his artistic language. The work moves away from the shimmering surfaces of “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and “The Kiss,” embracing instead a more enigmatic and psychologically attuned style. Its colours and textures unfold quietly, revealing their richness gradually.
Long hidden from public view, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer’s re-emergence has reaffirmed its place as a late masterpiece, accounting for more than 40% of the value of Lauder’s collection at auction. Today, Elisabeth Lederer stands not only as an exquisite artefact of the Viennese Golden Age, but as a testament to survival, cultural complexity and the enduring magnetism of Klimt’s final years.
A Landmark Event
The white-glove sale of 24 lots from the late Leonard Lauder’s personal effects drove much of the evening’s success during the November 2025 evening auctions, with Klimt’s other paintings also drawing strong enthusiasm and reinforcing the demand for his works. Across the room, Agnes Martin, Cecily Brown and Yu Nishimura's works achieved new milestones with significant sales, pointing to the breadth of artists resonating with today’s collectors. The momentum carried through into the Now and Contemporary Art lot, where the presence of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and other leading names reinforced the continued dynamism of the secondary market art sales.
Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart noted that strong demand, coupled with a younger generation of collectors seeking direct engagement with artists, is reshaping the market — a theme also explored in other Sotheby’s events like the Collector’s Week, running between 2nd and 5th December in Abu Dhabi.
Breuer Building, New York
Originally opened in 1966 as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Breuer building was designed by Marcel Breuer and had hosted exhibitions for The Frick Collection, cementing its status as a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture. After five decades, the building became a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, operating as the Met Breuer until its closure in 2020 following the pandemic. Sotheby’s acquired the site in 2023 and officially unveiled it late this year as its new global headquarters.
The November 2025 evening auctions brought the global art community together in this prestigious venue for a night of memorable sales and competitive fervour. The nearly 20-minute bidding war, resulting in Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer piece being bought by an anonymous phone bidder, sent the packed room into applause. The night also marked a defining moment for the Breuer building, with its first auction under the Sotheby’s banner achieving a headline-making sale.
In Closing
In a year defined by restraint, the night at Breuer Building offered something rare – a clear signal that confidence endures at the highest tiers of collecting, that exceptional works continue to set the pace and that, indeed, Sotheby’s remains the benchmark by which such defining moments are measured.
